Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Anniversary of the arrival of Columbus

Arrival of Christopher Columbus on 12 October 1492AD at San Salvador (Bahamas), image circa 1862.
Today, the 12th of October, marks the anniversary of Columbus and his flotilla first making landfall in the New World.

Christopher Columbus actually misjudged the size of the
Earth – he thought Japan to be where Florida actually is! He, an Italian, sailed for Spain, specifically the Kingdom of Castile and Leon, to bring
Christianity to the East, and to, he hoped, provide funding for a Crusade.Columbus would discover the New World in 1492
(he discovered the Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola in this first voyage), and make three further
journeys: his second (1493-1496) which found the Leeward Isles, Puerto Rico and
Jamaica [he founded Santo Domingo on this voyage], his third (1498) which found Trinidad, the
mouth of the Orinoco, and his fourth (1502-1504) which passed the Windward
isles and explored the Central American coast – always believing it to be part
of the Indies.Interior of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo.While Columbus himself was not without flaw, and his administration of the West Indies was clearly lacking in some regards, the true legacy of his voyages was the arrival of Catholic Christianity and Western Civilization to the New World. The New World gained much, particularly from Spain, for, “instead of fearful temples…there were Christian
churches; while upon the Indians themselves have been bestowed the hardly won
prizes of ages of slow progress, the developed arts, the various domestic
animals, the grains, vegetables, and fruits, the use of letters, and the
printing press, and the forms of government.” [Quotation from Spain in America by Bourne]
Certainly abuses did remain a serious problem (though there was a triennial audit
of these realms) as did the ravages of disease (particularly smallpox) – all
the same, there was an earnest attempt to convert, civilize, and protect the
Indians by both the crown and Church.The
crown spent its own money seeing to the introduction of missionaries, and
orders such as the Franciscans, Dominicans, & Jesuits made important gains.By the end of
the 16th century there was a thriving Spanish New World culture,
complete with “universities, scholars, authors, presses, scientists, and
saints.”A taste of that New World culture, with images of the Mexican Church of Santa Prisca in Taxco, along with a setting of the Salve Regina written by Hernando Franco in Mexico -- this in a land once marked by its widespread human sacrifice: